Two of the last teams to walk across the tournament fishing pavilion stage at Lake Dardanelle State Park on Wednesday found themselves in first and second place after Day 1 of the Student Angler Federation (SAF) High School Fishing World Finals.

Two anglers from Illinois landed the best bag of Day 1. Ryan Spencer and Benjamin Tate caught a five-fish limit that weighed in at 20 pounds even to lead the record field of 133 teams competing in this year’s High School Fishing World Finals, also presented by The Bass Federation (TBF), FLW and the city of Russellville.

“We got size but not really numbers,” Spencer and Tate said. “We didn’t reach our limit until 12:30, 1 o’clock, then we culled but just a couple times.”

Spencer’s no stranger to TBF youth tournaments, neither is Tate, but this is their first appearance at the world finals and they’ve certainly came out swinging.

“We pre-fished the Saturday before, and those are the spots we had today,” the said. “Sure hope they hold up. (We’re) going to try not to switch it up, try to hold on to the pattern.”

Also one of the last teams to weigh in was the brother-sister team and local favorites, Baylee Linker and Jake White, representing Dover High School. Linker and White had a limit of bass that weighed 19 pounds, 7ounces.

“We’ve got (today) going, and we haven’t even hit our big spots yet,” the pair said. “We are from here, out here every day, so we had a bunch of fish located. We figured we’d go around to our small spots to try and catch fish at each one, then hit our big spots. But, we loaded up on all our small spots where we didn’t even plan on catching fish.”

The team had a limit by 10 a.m., but didn’t find their lunker until their last cast with five minutes to spare.

“It was the last of the day, and it was probably the most exciting part of the day,” White said.

On stage, Linker, who is fishing her fourth and last world finals as a senior, told the crowd this was her brother’s first time to fish it and was glad his first and her last could be together.

“It has been awesome out there with him,” she said. “It’s been the most fun yet.”

When Linker was a freshman, the brother-sister duo fished the consolation day together where families were invited to fish.

“He made me pinky promise when he could compete, I wouldn’t fish with anyone but him. I don’t break pinky promises,” she pointed out.

Last year, Linker finished in the top 10, but this year with her brother by her side, she’s hoping to take it all.

“It’s our first time to fish this together, it’s my senior year and my last world finals,” she said. “I’m hoping to get that trophy.”

Close behind in third place are James Kimbrough and Jared Rascoe, representing Benton High School, with a five-bass limit weighing 19-5.

In a tie for fourth with 17-9 are the teams of Trevor Yates and Wyatt Smith from Oklahoma and Austin Dupree and Tyler Woods from Texas. Dupree and Woods also scored a 7-pountty beauty that was the big bass of Day 1.

The team had their limit by 10am and their big bass by 10:30am. “The wind changed directions out there, made it harder, but we grinded through it.”

Regular competition continues today, with the weigh-in scheduled at 2:30 p.m. at the state park. This year the format has changed to add an exciting element to the tournament — level the playing field no matter the state — introduce a double-elimination bracket to give students the chance to fish their ways back into the finals.

After two full-field tournament days, the weights will be zeroed and the top two teams from each state will advance to Friday’s semifinals. The remainder of the field will also fish Friday for a second chance into the finals. The top 10 teams from the semifinals will automatically advance on Saturday. Then, the top 10 teams overall, either from the semifinals or the second-chance, round will advance.

Weigh-ins will be live streamed daily on www.highschoolfishing.org and www.bassfederation.com